


Hello, Old Friend

by angeloscastiel



Category: Doctor Who, Supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-24
Updated: 2013-05-24
Packaged: 2017-12-12 20:30:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/815722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angeloscastiel/pseuds/angeloscastiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a nondescript Tuesday afternoon, two extraordinary, timeless beings meet on a park bench.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hello, Old Friend

It was one of those nondescript days when you could step outside and not know whether it was summer or winter or spring, when the breeze was just strong enough to ripple a coat, and the sky was a soft grey that promised neither rain nor shine. It was one of those days that nothing could happen or does happen, in the monotony of a Tuesday afternoon when it’s too early to start daydreaming of the weekend, a day that gets forgotten as soon as the clock strikes midnight.

On this nondescript day in a nondescript suburban park, seated on a bench donated to the city council in a wealthy couple’s will in 1989, two old men sat in appreciative silence, watching the wind shake leaves from trees.

To the casual observer there was nothing special about them, nothing to indicate that their impossible age was not reflected in their youthful faces, or that they sat bowed under the weight of worlds upon their shoulders.

One man broke the silence with a softly spoken “Hello, old friend,” accompanied with a small smile that was at once saddened, weary and content, and the other man returned his greeting gravely, squinting into the cloud-veiled sun.

“I saw them fall,” the first man said, and the other man scrubbed his face with open palms and exhaled slowly.

“Castiel,” he continued, but his words died on his lips, withered from the memory of his own loss, and the other man turned to him.

“Tell me, Doctor. How do you carry on?”

“You forget,” the Doctor replied, and there was a force behind his words that wasn’t there before. “You forget, because otherwise it will destroy you. You forget, and you keep saving the universe because you have to believe there is _something_ worth fighting for.”

“You’ve always known, haven’t you?” Castiel’s eyes remained fixed on the ground before him. “About Heaven. About what happens to it. Ever since we first met.”

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you your own future.”

“I know the rules, Doctor.”

There was a long pause, and Castiel spoke again. “I visited Amelia Pond’s heaven. She’s happy.”

“What does it look like?”

“Her wedding day. She remembers you.”

“She always did.”

“She wanted to know if you were still travelling alone.”

“I did. For a while. For a long while. But I’ve found someone now.” The Doctor smiled fondly. “Clara. My Impossible Girl.”

“She’s not with you now?”

“She’s a nanny. Kids to look after. Very fond of them.”

“She sounds like a good person.”

“Yeah, she is.”

They lapsed into silence again, this one lasting long enough that both seemed to forget the presence of the other, each lost in his own thoughts. Finally, Castiel spoke.

“Doctor. What do I do now?”

“You find him, Castiel.”

“But he – we’re not on the best of terms. I didn’t listen to him when he tried to warn me. Again.”

“Do you know what I told Winston Churchill?” the Doctor asked, leaning forward. “I told him, _my friends have always been the best of me._ Dean Winchester is the best of you, Castiel. Find him.”

“Come with me.”

“You know I can’t.”

Castiel exhaled, his whole body deflating, and turned pained eyes to the Doctor. “Please. You’re the only one who understands…the situation.”

The unspoken hung heavily in the air between them, the destruction of worlds a pain far too great to be given form in words. The Time Lords and the angels, one sealed inside their home for eternity as it burned to ashes around them, the other forced out of it as their bodies rained fire across the night sky. Watched by a lonely sentinel whose good intentions were tainted forever with the blood of their brothers.

But Castiel knew, even as he said the words, that was exactly why the Doctor couldn’t stay with him. He was a fallen angel of the Lord who had taken God’s throne, decimated Heaven and slain an archangel, and in his search for redemption cast out the angels from Heaven. The Doctor was the Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds. The blood on their combined hands could drench the world in scarlet.

It was humanity who reminded them of the promises they made – the Doctor when he took his name, Castiel from his very creation when he swore to protect them. And it was suddenly, blindingly clear to Castiel where and how his redemption could be found, because the Righteous Man had always been his counterpart, the other half of him.

“Take me to him,” he told the Doctor simply, and the Doctor smiled as they walked, together, to the hidden blue box in the corner of the park.


End file.
